Epic settles lawsuit with Fortnite cheater

Ben Parfitt . DEVELOPMENT . 6th December 2017

Fortnite: Battle Royale developer Epic has settled a lawsuit with an individual who had been cheating at its free-to-play game.

Charles 'Joreallean' Vraspir was accused of violating the game’s EULA by injecting unauthorised code into the game. He was also accused of association with a site that provides cheats, on which he acted as a moderator and support staffer.

His cheats allowed him to see through objects, teleport around the gameworld and impersonate other players.

“The defendant’s cheating, and his inducing and enabling of others to cheat, is ruining the game playing experience of players who do not cheat,” Epic said, as reported by Torrent Freak.

The settlement rules that Vraspir destroys all of his cheats and never cheats again. Breaching this agreement will result in a $5,000 fine.

At the same time Epic opened proceedings against Vraspir, the company also targeted a second cheater. It then transpired, however, that this individual was just 14 years old, and thus cannot be sued. His mother previously attacked the company for the move.

“Please note parental consent was not issued to [my son] to play this free game produced by Epic Games,” she said, Torrent Freak adds, pointing out that the game cannot legally be played by minors without parental permission. “It is my belief that due to their lack of ability to curve cheat codes and others from modifying their game, they are using a 14-year-old child as a scape goat to make an example of him.”

Epic now says that they went legal on the boy to counter a counterclaim he had made against an attempted DMCA takedown against one of his cheat videos.

“Under these circumstances, the law requires that we file suit or drop the claim,” Epic said.

"Epic is not okay with ongoing cheating or copyright infringement from anyone at any age. We take cheating seriously, and we’ll pursue all available options to make sure our games are fun, fair, and competitive for players.”